The desire to provide land use information in an easily understood format has existed for years. This desire is particularly important for agricultural applications. In making decisions relative to farm operations, it is a well known fact that many operations are intertwined with common ownership, management, control, or other relational aspects. Unfortunately, it can be very difficult to understand the web of interactions that may often exist in an agronomic context. Historically, sales persons or other service providers often have worked hard to gain the knowledge of who-owns-who and who-runs-who. This knowledge has often been developed through a long course of dealing (and a good memory) by sales persons or other service persons involved in a specific county or other geographic area. While there may never be a full replacement for the person interactions that help develop such information, what has been long desired is a system that could aid in developing such understandings. While computing systems have developed and significant database information has existed at some levels, it has remained difficult to see relationships; data is often not easily assembled to provide such information and to augment the personal interactions through which such information has historically been developed.
Agricultural software relative to farm management and database interactions has existed for some time. A computerized system for farm insurance decision making is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,897,619 entitled “Farm Management System”. This computerized system uses data from a variety of sources to determine field production history for a specific parcel or insurance unit. This information is then applied to set rates for that insurance and the like. It also generates site-specific information to verify insurance claims and the like. It does not, however, disclose a system that scours information databases for the types of relational ties that exist across differing entities.
Others have similarly used available information on individual parcels or even from wide area databases to provide management input for specific parcels. In fact, as early as 1998, one of the inventors of the present invention provided an early disclosure of the use of productivity indexes across geographies and other elements to glean interactions of information on a more global scale in order to identify resource management domains that could be used to not only identify historical change in agriculture land use, but also to aid in farm management and crop selection for a specific parcel. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,058,351 for “Management Zones for Precision Farming” disclosed a use of information and data in order to determine specific management zones in a field to permit precise farming. As that patent explains, crop production can be optimized by considering spatial variations that exist within a given farming field. Implicitly it demonstrates that economics can be significantly impacted by an understanding of geospatial criteria. It does not, however, disclose a system that adequately allows data on more than one agronomic entity to be understood in an agronomic context. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,990,459 for “System and Method for Developing a Farm Management Plan for Production Agriculture” shows a computer system for farm management to optimize economics of multi-year crop selection, crop rotation, or the like using imported data. Again, however, this is system focuses on data from individual farms for optimization. Further developments have followed this same theme even expanded to a larger area of impact. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,999,877, 7,047,133, and 7,047,135 each show computerized systems that permit performance evaluation of agricultural crops using data relative to specific geographic locations or areas with significant focus on decision making and prediction relative to a farm, farms, or regions of interest. They do not disclose discerning indirect or other relations such as is often desired in this context.
Other patents disclose the use of computer automation in order to track and protect the use of the specific crops or such as genetically modified organisms. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,691,135 and 6,671,698, each entitled “Method and System for Automated Tracing of an Agricultural Product”, disclose computer systems that can integrate geospatial use information with specific labels or containers in order to have an understanding of the locations at which such crops are used or stored. Even though apparently considering neighboring land impacts, these patents focus on individual uses and do not provide for a relational integration of information between various agronomic entities.
Considerable attention has also been given to the use of computers in order to provide accurate geospatial land description information. U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,271, entitled “Mapping and Analysis Systems for Precision Farming Applications” discloses specific techniques available, in order to generate agricultural maps that can ultimately be used to optimize productivity of the farming field. This technology involves a geo-referencing device that synchronizes position data to analyze a farming field. No consideration is provided relative to relational interactions among different farming entities. U.S. Pat. No. 6,119,069 is entitled “System and Method for Deriving Field Boundaries using Alpha Shapes.” This patent discloses a computerized system that can determine the boundaries of fields for use in a geospatial application. It focuses on defining the boundary, not on interactions and relations of farming entities. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,442,483, entitled “System and Method for Defining and Creating Surrogate Addresses for Township and Range Quarter Sections”, involves a computerized system that translates land descriptions such as may be used in the US public land survey system. This individualized focus does not address any understanding of the interactions between different entities and different farms. Similarly, US patent application US20020059091 entitled “Apparatus and Methods for Selecting Farms to Grow a Crop of Interest” discloses a technology whereby farms can be managed and crops selected based on economic criteria of interest. Again it does not involve relational interactions between various farming entities.
In spite of the advances made in the use of computing systems in an agronomic context, until the present invention, no system has been available that adequately considers the interaction and interplay between different economic entities as such may be applicable in a particular situation. A need has existed whereby the interplay of information can be considered and integrated into either an analysis or a presentation from which practical decisions can be made. Furthermore, no automated system has existed that provides the level of analysis that can provide information which, while not existing under precise analysis, can be understood to exist on a conceptual basis nonetheless and can be applied in order to provide more in depth decision-making. No system has existed that could indicate indirect relational links between different agronomic entities and perhaps could even generate virtual information that can aid in such an understanding.